The Home team: Minor leaguers with Southern Arizona ties: Ex-Badger back in minors to work on repertoire

Tom Wilhelmsen had converted the 10th-most saves in the American League with 24 for Seattle, but in his last 10 games with the Mariners his ERA jumped to 7.45, leading to his demotion to Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday.

The trip to Triple-A is the first of the Tucson High School product's career. When Wilhelmsen was called up to the majors in 2011, it came while he was playing for Double-A Jackson.

The Mariners want Wilhelmsen to work on his pitching repertoire in multiple-inning situations by using him as a starter.

The right-hander's first start did not go well as two of the first three batters he faced hit homers in a loss to Iowa.

• The ex-Wildcat lost two games dropping his record to 1-4 on the year. Simon yielded five runs and eight hits in four games last week, but did record his eighth save Tuesday

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Jason Donald • 2B, Louisville Bats (Reds' Triple-A affiliate)

• Donald struck out in all four at-bats Friday in a loss to Columbus. It was the first four-strikeout game for the UA product since Aug. 27, 2008, when he was with Double-A Reading.

Jett Bandy • C, Arkansas Travelers (Angels' Double-A affiliate)

• The former Arizona catcher has been held hitless in has last four games and is batting .121 in his past 10 contests. For the season Bandy is hitting .226 with 19 extra-base hits.

Player of the week

Kurt Heyer • RHP, Palm Beach Cardinals (Cardinals' High-A affiliate)

The Arizona alum won his second consecutive start Thursday.

Heyer helped Palm Beach to a 1-0 victory over Jupiter by pitching seven shutout innings to raise his scoreless inning streak to 12. The right-hander allowed just four hits and one walk to the Hammerheads. He also struck out four.

The lone run in the game came on a sacrifice fly to center field by former Wildcat Alex Mejia. The win was the Cardinals' eighth straight and kept them in first place in the Florida State League South Division.

Heyer has a 5-3 record, 3.78 ERA and 50 strikeouts since being promoted to High-A Palm Beach from Class-A Peoria.

He has won a combined eight games between the two teams this year.

Heyer is in his second season as a pro, after being selected in the sixth round of the 2012 draft.

The big number

17

Doubles on the season for ex-Wildcat Johnny Field with Low-A Hudson Valley, the second-most two-baggers in the New York-Penn League.

Coming up

Wednesday: Pima and Mountain View product Eric Fredrick faces the Gulf Coast League Twins, a team he picked up his first professional save against four outings ago for the GCL Rays.

He said it

"I hit it right down the line. It kept drifting, drifting, drifting and, at the last second, nicked the foul pole. I'm just looking at it, trying to blow it fair."

Stefen Romero said in an interview with MiLB.com's Robert Emrich after hitting his third grand slam of the season Thursday for Tacoma, the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A team. The Pima College and Sunnyside High product has now hit seven home runs and produced 61 RBIs in 2013.